Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half-Shell Heroes Blast From the Past Turtles
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The Ninja Turtles and dinosaurs have been crossing paths since early in the Mirage Comics, the Triceratons count right? Even if they don't,
the Turtles have still managed to cross paths with actual dinosaurs either thanks to time travel or mysterious lands below the streets of
New York. (No Seriously. Go watch the original cartoon.) So it should be no surprise that their Half-Shell Heroes incarnations are about
to cross paths with the Jurassic once again. Next month Nickelodeon will be airing an animated special featuring the Half-Shell Hero Turtles
and their adventures in the distant past. But the first of the toys have already arrived on store shelves. Each of the four Turtles is
available as part of the basic assortment packaged with a small companion dinosaur. So while we still have to wait to see the show, we can
check out the first of the figures right away.
Packaging - 8/10The packaging for the Blast From the Past Turtles is almost the same as the previous Half-Shell Heroes basic figures. There is a small addition of a notice of the Nickelodeon TV special. And they finally updated the text on the back. I must admit that I'm a tad bit surprised that they did not include any images from the TV special or change the graphics to fit the prehistoric theme as they have done in the past. That's not really necessary though. The packaging looks nice and gives you great access to the toys. Though the material for the cards seems a bit thin which makes it prone to warping and damage.
Sculpting - Mikey & Raph 4/10 Leo 5/10, Don 6/10The sculpting for the Blast From the Past Turtles is not Playmates' best work. The concept it there. Each Turtle gets a new sculpt with an outfit put together from materials they found in the prehistoric world. The concept is solid. But the details of the molds isn't very sharp resulting in figures with unidentifiable objects on them. The best of the series is Donatello. Most of his costume details look good. The one area where he could use some improvement is around his neck. He's got what looks like a fur collar but I can't tell exactly what it is. Also, my figure looks as though he may have been assembled wrong as his head is pushed down so low that he has no neck. Leonardo comes in as a close second. Most of his costume looks good. But I still can't tell exactly what his belt and sword are suppose to be made of. (The belt looks like it might be a snake with the head used a the buckle.) Mikey has a lot of nice detail. But he also is the only figure to have the filler material on his weapon this time. And he is wearing what appears to be a saber tooth tiger head on his noggin. But the pelt looks more like he skinned a saber tooth tiger stuffed animal. I suppose it can't look too realistic since it is meant for a young audience. Finally there is Raphael who is covered with unidentifiable details. Each of the Turtles also comes with a small dinosaur companion as well. The dinosaurs are certainly not scientifically accurate models. (I have heard one person get very upset over the fact that the T-rex has three fingers.) But they are quite cute and look good.
Paint - Mikey 3/10, Raph & Donnie 5/10, Leo 6/10The paint work on both the Turtles and the dinos are solid in terms of the quality control. The dinos in particular look great other than the unpainted claws/toenails. The Turtles vary depending upon how much effort they put into painting the details of the sculpting. Leo has the most number of colors which really helps a lot of those details to stand out. But there is still a lot of small details that could still be painted. Both Donatello and Raphael have a bit less paint work than Leonardo, but still have enough to make them look good. Michelangelo is the one stinker in the group. He has far too many important details that are left either totally unpainted in the case of his foot wear or completely painted in just a single color in the case of his head gear. Those two oversights really hurt this figure.
Articulation - 5/10The Blast From the Past Turtles have the usual six points of articulation that most Half-Shell Heroes figures. My Donatello figure's neck is very difficult to turn and limited to just a few degrees of motion. But once again, I believe that is due to the head being pushed down too far on my figure. The dinosaurs are fairly limited in this area. Each has rotating joints for the neck and each pair of limbs. But each pair of limbs is linked together through the torso. So the number of poses possible are quite limited.
Accessories - 7/10Each of the Blast From the Past Turtles is packaged with their own companion dinosaur. But that is it for accessories. The dino companions are cute and each is marked with paint to identify their Turtle partner. They could use a bit more range of motion from their articulation though.
Value - Mikey 6/10, others 7/10The Blast From the Past Turtles are part of the regular assortment of Half-Shell Heroes figures. So each two pack should sell for $7 to $8. That is a very fair price for two fairly cool little figures. And given how promising the TV special looks, these will probably be a favorite for any young TMNT fan.
Happy Hunting:The Blast From the Past Turtles are part of the basic assortment of Half-Shell Heroes figures which is available in most stores with a decent toy section such as Toys R Us, Walmart, Target and more. They are the most recent figures and started arriving in stores in limited numbers just a couple of weeks ago. I got my set from Walmart and have seen them in several local stores since then. But depending upon how quickly your local stores sell through their existing stock of HSH figures, these may take a while to show up in great numbers everywhere.
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